wedding favours
by Cookies and Ink
Summary: Harry had agreed to be Ginny's fake boyfriend for a wedding, to keep her Mum off her back. He hadn't expected to find someone he'd fall head over heels for there.


**A/N:** Written for February's meet cute marathon. Other prompts & challenges are listed below.

Word Count: 705

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 **wedding favours**

"I sing only to punish my children."

That was the exact moment Harry realised that the Weasley household was vastly different to how he understood family. The only person who'd sung when he was growing up was occasionally Uncle Vernon or Dudley in the shower and whilst that had certainly been a form of punishment to endure, Harry couldn't remember them every joking about it like Arthur Weasley was now.

He laughed as one of his son's - Bill, Harry thought although he wasn't sure. There were so many of them, Ginny had not prepared him at all.

She squeezed his hand and gave him a beseeching look, so Harry pretended to enjoy himself and whisked her onto the dancefloor. It was a cousin's wedding, someone even Ginny said she didn't really know and Harry had offered to be her fake boyfriend. They'd been working together at a local animal shelter, Ginny volunteering mainly to put down on her CV whilst Harry had always had a passion for animals. It had seemed like fun, a wedding with a free bar, Ginny was cool to hang around with and Harry never had any plans.

She had said that her Mum was a bit 'full on' and that her family was loud but Harry hadn't been expecting this. He'd been threatened by four brothers, if he ever broke Ginny's heart and they were also so touchy feely it was making him jumpy.

"Hey, Gin, I'm just going to step outside to get some fresh air, okay?"

She kissed him on the cheek, winked and nodded as Harry wove through crowds of tipsy people towards the back of the marquee and out into the garden.

"You're a brave man, you know."

Harry had thought he was alone, leaning against a stone wall looking out over a field and he jumped a mile, looking around himself.

"I'm down here on the other side of the wall smoking. Mum'd kill me if she knew and Fred would just want to get some cigarettes from me."

Harry peered over the wall to see yet another ginger man. Unlike all the others he'd been introduced too and shook hands with, this one was drop dead gorgeous, even in the dim light as dusk drew to a close.

"My name's Ron, I'm Ginny's brother."

"There's more of you?"

"She has six brothers, in total," Ron grinned. "Although out of all of us, she's the one you want to piss off the least. Anyway, she told me she was inviting you to get Mum off her back. I didn't think you'd actually come."

"She didn't really tell me it would be like… this," Harry said weakly. "My guardians when I grew up were quiet, strict… hugs weren't a thing at all and laughter was practically a foreign concept. So this has just blown my mind."

"That sounds awful. I know my family's mental but mate, that's no way to live."

Harry shrugged, unwilling to talk about his past and Ron took a final drag before straightening up as he exhaled the smoke, crushing the cigarette butt underfoot.

"Here, now Mum's seen you, Ginny's off the hook. She'll be catching up with all the Aunt's and stuff anyone so I think you'll be free to stay out here for a bit, or I can take you inside if you fancy quiet? I've got a PlayStation I was about to turn on?"

"And miss the wedding?"

"I've got twenty-seven cousins in total," Ron shrugged with a smirk. "There'll be another wedding, but I don't think I'll have an opportunity to get to know you all to myself. You work at the animal shelter, right?"

"Yeah, I got my dog Padfoot from there and a cat called Minnie. I started off volunteering and then picked up a lot of things, I'm hoping to go into veterinary sciences."

"Handsome, clever, loves animals… This is when you tell me you're straight and actually do fancy my sister."

"Nope. I am very, very gay," Harry said and it was his turn to smirk. Ron jumped over the garden wall and then slung his arm around Harry's shoulders.

"In that case, I think we really should get to know each other."

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 **A/N** : Additional prompt used: Jenny's Jovial Quotations - "I only sing to punish my children" - Phyllis Diller


End file.
